Month: March 2017

Last week I presented the first part of a walkthrough for a Star Wars: Edge of the Empire adventure I wrote. The party was hired by a crimelord to retrieve a mysterious item from a renegade employee. This turned out to be a lightsaber, and the group found themselves caught between the crimelord, the Rebel Alliance and the Empire. They gathered their information and prepared to meet the renegade employee to retrieve the item…

The time of the meet now approached. The group was still undecided about who they would work for, but did want to find this mysterious item. They surveyed the meet’s location—a spot near the edge of Trader’s Plaza. The group found signs that someone had set up a position from which they could watch—and snipe the group—if needed from a nearby rooftop. Alex set up a bomb near this position (using a destiny point to uncover explosives), and Sarek set himself up on another rooftop to provide cover. Changkaishek and Alex would hide in the alleyway during the meet, while Bint would do the talking.

Finally, the time for the meet arrived. Oparro arrived with a Barabel guard—a big lizard-like humanoid—and his Rodian slicer. When he realized Bint was here to collect the item, he became hostile and threatened them. Then the group sprung their trap. Alex detonated the bomb, killing what turned out to be a Gand sniper. Sarek, Bint and Alex opened fire. Bint and Alex killed the Rodian, while Sarek scored a critical hit on the Barabel, severely wounding him. Meanwhile, Bint grabbed Oparro and threatened him if he didn’t give up the item.

Bint rolled very well on his intimidation check, so Oparro offered the group 15,000 if they would help him deliver it—as they’d just killed most of his crew. They agreed, and accompanied him back to his ship where his pilot was waiting with the item. Oparro opened a safe, and the item was revealed to be…a lightsaber. Everyone looked in awe at this rare relic for a moment, when suddenly a concussion grenade went off. When they came to, the group saw a man with the lightsaber fleeing on a swoop bike.

Thinking fast, the group piled into Oparro’s speeder and took off after the man. Even though the swoop bike was faster, excellent piloting by Alex allowed them to close with him, and Sarek destroyed his bike. As this chase was occurring, the group realized another speeder was shadowing them on one side, while a TIE shuttle was tracking them overheard.

The swoop bike crashed in a clearing containing an old hut. The group rushed to the man, grabbing the lightsaber as he babbled something about the guilt they would feel for stealing this. Meanwhile, the speeder—which they saw contained the Rebels—and the TIE shuttle (containing Donaldo and some crew) arrived. Both groups got out, and called on them to turn over the lightsaber.

Suddenly, an old lady came out of the house, and everyone turned to her, drawn by her powerful presence. She told them the lightsaber was all she had left from her dead husband, but they might as well just take it since they’d already disturbed her peace. The group was not really interested in this “sidequest” (their words) and formulated a plan to get out of here. They decided to drive over to the Rebels, acting as if they would join them. Then they would toss a grenade into the Rebels’ speeder, fire on Donaldo’s team, and take off in the confusion.

This did not occur as planned, however, as when Alex punched it the speeder’s engines gave out. They had taken considerable strain during the chase as the speeder was not designed for rough driving. It came to a stop near the Rebels, as the Rebels and Imperials began exchanging fire. Alex tried to fix it, but fumbled in his nervousness. Bint managed to convince one of the Rebels to repair the speeder just enough so they could take off. As soon as they did this, Bint tossed the grenade at the Rebels and the group sped away.

They dropped off Oparro, and rushed to their ship. As they were powering up, the space traffic control informed them they required permission and a flight path before leaving. Ignoring this, they took off, barely dodging incoming ships to get into orbit. When they emerged from the atmosphere, they saw Donaldo’s ship bearing down on them.

Alex manned the controls, trying to get the ship far enough away from the planet. Meanwhile, Bint and Sarek attempted to plot a course using the astrogation computer. Neither of them were very skilled at this—and they were heading to a rendezvous point in the middle of nowhere based on coordinates from Oparro—so they fumbled at their attempt and had to redo the calculations (the players kept failing astrogation checks). This gave Donaldo’s ship a chance to close with them and open fire, nearly crippling their ship before the calculations were complete and the made the jump to light speed.

They arrived at the rendezvous where Oparro was waiting. He said he had to set up the payment with his “other buyer”—who he refused to identify—and asked for the lightsaber. The team initially refused until Oparro gave them a valuable relic as collateral. He then told them to wait for him on the planet Chordaan.

Next week I will discuss my thoughts on creating and running an adventure in Star Wars: Edge of the Empire.

This is another in my series of walkthrough posts, in which I run through what happened in a game session. See my earlier posts on a D&D 5e session. This post deals with a different RPG, Fantasy Flight’s excellent Star Wars: Edge of the Empire (EOTE). This game focuses on the seedier side of the Star Wars universe, with players creating rogues, smugglers and exiles who adventure in the Outer Rim. It’s my favorite of the Star Wars RPGs (I’ll blog about others later).

In this post I’ll talk about a module I created. I’ll talk about the backstory and what happened when we ran it. I’ll also include notes on game mechanics [in brackets] as I did with my earlier walkthroughs. Unlike my earlier walkthrough, I’ll have an extra post discussing thoughts on creating and running an original module for EOTE.

My former group was alternating between D&D and EOTE, when our EOTE GM became interested in trying out a new character. So I volunteered to run the group. There were some premade modules available, but I was interested in trying to write my own.

I decided to make a three-episode adventure revolving around a rediscovered lightsaber. In the opening adventure, the group would be tasked by a crimelord with retrieving the lightsaber (although they don’t yet know what it is) and gradually they become embroiled in broader turmoil, as the Empire, the Rebel Alliance, and a fallen Jedi all get involved.

I designed the first episode to be as non-railroady as possible (characters get to make a lot of open-ended choices). The basic plot is that the group was hired by Deg-Lilek, a Twi’ilek crimelord, to retrieve an item (revealed to be the lightsaber) from a rogue employee, Oparro (a Toydarian). In addition to Oparro and Deg-Lilek, the lightsaber is sought after by a rogue Imperial agent, some Rebel spies, and its original owner, the widow of a Jedi who hid after the Purge. When I wrote it, I had no idea what path the group would take, which was kind of fun.

The group included Sarek, a Chiss big game hunter; Alex, a human mechanic; Bint, a Draal doctor; and ChanngKaishk, a Wookie brawler. They gathered at Deg-Lilek’s compound on the smuggler’s moon of Nar Shadaa after being summoned. The crimelord told them one of his employees—Oparro—had gone rogue while recovering an item for a client; Oparro claimed he had another buyer and was holding out for more money. Deg-Lilek wants the group to travel to meet Oparro on the planet of Atzerri, pretending to have his money. They are to retrieve the item however they see fit, and will be paid 5,000.

The group agreed, and headed to Atzerri. Shortly after arriving in the system, however, an Imperial patrol craft stops them and requests to inspect their ship. The group knew they’ve done nothing illegal (yet) so they shut down their systems and prepared to be boarded. The Imperial commander, Donaldo, turned out to be Deg-Lilek’s client. He is annoyed that Deg-Lilek failed to deliver the item—which he hopes to deliver to the Emperor, going around his chain of command, to gain his favor—and wants the group to get it for him. He’ll double what they were being paid. Not having much of a choice, they promise to help and he lets them go.

They then landed on Atzerri, a swamp planet with very little governance and a wild, sprawling capital city. The meet with Oparro was scheduled for the next day. The group passed through the chaotic Traders’ Plaza—a kind of giant space-souk—where they tried to get information on what Oparro was up to. They then continued to gather information in Dak’s Cantina, a prominent watering hole near the Plaza.

While they were walking around, two encounters happened. First, late at night after leaving the cantina, they were ambushed by a group of men in an alleyway. They dispatched them easily, killing all but one, whom they incapacitated and left in a dumpster. On one of the bodies they found a datapad with information on themselves as well as Oparro’s group, and mentions of a woman still being safe despite the item’s theft.

The second encounter happened the next day. As they were walking through a busy avenue off Trader’s Plaza, a group of men surrounded them. One, a Sullustan, asked them to step into an alleyway to chat. He turned out to be a member of the Rebel alliance. They were hoping to gain the item for themselves; while they didn’t know what Donaldo was up to, they thought frustrating the Empire was worthwhile. They couldn’t offer as much money as Deg-Lilek or Donaldo, but they promised the Rebel alliance would help the group in the future. Again, the group agreed—just because it was difficult to argue when they were surrounded—and left.

Last week I discussed the backstory of Badger, a D&D 5e forest gnome rogue. This week, I’ll discuss the mechanics behind the character. This is in my Origin Stories series of posts, see here for an earlier one.

Badger was inspired by the Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide. This sourcebook included information on where each of the races in the PHB fit into the Sword Coast setting. It mentioned forest gnomes tend to live by themselves deep in the woods. That got me thinking about why a forest gnome would be adventuring. One possibility was a druid trying to fight off threats to the forest, but I was more intrigued by the idea of a well-meaning rogue cast out of his society.

This would be a pretty basic rogue, with most of the flavor going into the backstory. But the forest gnome race gives him a few extra skills, which I’ll discuss below.

He’s obviously a forest gnome, and I gave him the outlander background to fit his story. And chaotic good is the go-to choice for a good rogue.

For stats, I prioritized dexterity (a must for thieves, for which forest gnomes get a bonus), and constitution. He also received a boost for intelligence as a gnome, and I gave him respectable wisdom. I admit I struggled with this, since according to his backstory he should not be very wise, but wisdom ends up being really important for perception, which a forest gnome rogue should be good at.

For skills, he has the usual sneaky thief skills-stealth (with expertise), sleight of hand, perception and acrobatics. And his outlander upbringing gave him skills in athletics and survival.

He’s armed with a short sword, shortbow, and dagger. And Badger has darkvision, the minor illusion cantrip, and the ability to speak with small animals from his forest gnome race.

So for this, I tried to craft an outdoorsy rogue, who melts into the forest rather than the shadows. And as he’s a bit of a wanderer, I downplayed the social skills in favor of sneaking and exploring.

This is another in my “Origin Story” series of posts, which I started with an earlier one on Randulf, a Lovecraftian warlock. These posts talk about the backstory of a character I created, as well as the mechanics of how I translated that backstory into a 5e D&D character.

This time, I’m talking about Badger, a forest gnome druid I created as a sort of sidekick to Randulf. Hope you enjoy it:

Alvyn “Badger” Folkor was a forest gnome living in a gnome village deep in the Cloakwood. His parents were rangers, protecting the village from wild beasts and invaders, and Badger trained to follow in their footsteps. He spent much time by himself in the wilderness, chatting with small animals for information, tracking outsiders to ensure they didn’t bother his village, and living off the land. But he was always rather free-spirited, and chafed at the restrictions his parents and village placed on him. When he wasn’t exploring the wilderness, Badger found it difficult to stay out of trouble. He would frequently “borrow” items from other villagers, get drunk and pass out in the village square, and embarrass himself in other ways. The growing frustration with Badger came to a head when he attempted to sample the latest gin produced by the village distillery and accidentally caused the still to explode.

The village elders asked Badger if he would be happier wandering free to explore the Cloakwood and the world beyond. Badger sensed they were trying to get rid of him, but was excited at the thought of no longer having to sit through his father’s lessons on dendrology. So he set out, leaving behind a very relieved village of forest gnomes.

Badger made his way first to Beregost, where he found the locals easily angered with his “borrowings” and “accidental” property destruction. He drew on his forestry skills to elude capture by the sheriff, and headed north. At each village, town or city he stopped in, the story was the same; he walked off with some food or goods, got drunk and tried to pick fights, or knocked over statues and mills. The local authorities came after him, and he disappeared back into the wilderness.

He eventually became quite the thief, although he never thought of himself as a rogue. Badger lived comfortably travelling up and down the Sword Coast, pilfering food and supplies and entertaining himself by running away from the powers that be. Eventually he made a mistake, however, and attempted to pick-pocket two travelers deep in the Mere of Dead Men outside Neverwinter. They caught him, and ignored his protestations that he had accidentally pulled their coinpurses from their pockets.

The men were impressed with Badger’s skill, however, and recognized his good nature. They revealed themselves as Harpers, and gave Badger the choice between joining them or going to jail. Naturally, he became a Harper.

After a few trial missions, they assigned him to his partner, a dour, half-mad warlock named Randulf Cardr. Both Badger and Randulf were mystified by this pairing, but the Harper leadership hoped Randulf could discipline Badger’s penchant for crime, while Badger’s well-meaning chaos would uplift Randulf’s sagging spirits. The jury is still out…